Replacing real wood with anything fake is never a good solution. I doubt you would be satisfied. I loved my original red oak flooring in my old 1959 home. As Helen said timeless and neutral. I wish I had them in my new home that has carpet and linoleum. but that is an expense that won't happen until we need to replace the flooring. I can't imagine spending that kind of money just because I don't like the color. I personally would keep it as is and replace the 600' of disjointed flooring with a tile you like Since it looks like you've already removed some of it. Wood floors are not great in a bathroom. I also think tile really is better in a foyer and kitchen. Lots cheaper to replace just 600'. I love your current wood floors. If it's the color you don't like you can stain them darker. But i would live with them as is now for awhile. Once you have furniture and rugs in the room it will look totally different. If you dislike it so much get a LARGE rug to cover most of it.

Repeat and learn to embrace the oak, or consider a slate tile for the foyer and kitchen. Slate looks fantastic with oak, and more "intentional" than just about any other tile.

Or...........if you detest it, and never will be happy. there goes $$$$$$$$ to white oak . NOT faux anything.

I think your floors look great. I would keep them, and add in where necessary. I also agree, that bathrooms need something other than wood on the floor, and its nice to have the entry way and kitchen something other than wood too. Many do put wood in the kitchen, and it looks great, but, if there is a leak anywhere, they end up having to be replaced. I like the idea of slate with the red oak.

Have a floor contractor come out and see if they can match the species, grade, grain, finish, and plank lengths. If they can that will be your best solution.

@OakandBroad, I have had several contractors come out to match the existing wood and quotes are between $12-15k. I'm wondering, at that price, would it be better to just get all new flooring that can give me the color I actually want?

personally I would hire someone to match the red oak and then strip it all down and refinish natural with a matte finish. Such a timeless look and the color isn't really very red with no stain. It would be such a $$ waste to rip out 1100sqft of 5 year old hardwood floor in great shape.

Actually - I would be tempted to keep the kitchen floor in a tile - but definitely not the one there currently.

It would be very easy to find out the cost of replacement wood floors as you can go to any good flooring store and find out what the cost would be

Demo of wood would be an additional cost - you are already demoing tile so that's moot

Cost of wood is always going to be more than cost of refinishing so that would be cost of the 1100 square feet of new wood versus refinishing it. Cost of the kitchen, bath and foyer would be a constant

Cost of installation versus cost of refinishing.

It is really a very easy exercise - just call around and get the total net cost. Your current contractors could probably give you a bid since they have already come to your home to measure etc.

Then determine whether the additional amount paid for new flooring is affordable and whether that cost is worth it to you versus spending it in other ways.

In an ideal world, what flooring would you select?

Put in new unfinished red oak and then have all the floors stained a darker tone to get rid of the red. IMO a dark floor with your cabinets would be nice

I want consistent flooring throughout the first floor, the laundry room and tiny powder bath I've been considering tile. My current house, built in 40's has original hardwood throughout the entire first floor and I love it! I should also mention that with this house, several walls will be knocked down to create an open floor plan and we plan on living here for 10-15 years so I'm not overly concerned with resale value--more concerned with happiness lol. And honestly, having consist and level flooring vs. what is in the currently in is already going to increase resale value. I just hate the pinkish hue of the red oak floors, I don't find it very neutral at all. Is there anyway to mask the redness in a light-medium stain color?

In my ideal world, I would be starting with a white oak floor so I didn't have any undertones to compete with, and likely a natural stain. The existing floors are Red Oak with a natural stain and they look very pink to me. I just talked to another hardwood specialist and he said there's no way to hide the red unless we go dark to a walnut type of stain. My overall style is modern/Scandinavian and I'm not sure a floor that dark, with my two-tone kitchen, would work well together.

I don't know what can be achieved with a stain but these are my red oak floors with a "natural" stain which I just installed. They are engineered Mirage floors - red oak/select and better. The picture is from their website but is a very accurate depiction of the light tones of my floor.

I had considered white oak but I didn't want the brown undertones as I have a LOT of white oak quarter sawn cabinetry and other wood work so I wanted a lighter contrast.

Thanks Helen for sharing! I haven't seen Red Oak in Natural with a matte finish--I believe that is exactly how our floors would look if we decide to match and refinish. Your floors look great. I think another thing that throws me off with the current flooring we have is that the edges are rounded, which we planned on having them sanded down so that they are flush like yours. What we have just looks so dated even though they are only 5 years old.

To mask the red in the floors, choose a stain with some green in it. Green is the complement of red and when combined will look browner/grayer.

Your floors are in excellent condition and are quality planks. No knots that I can see. Those are more expensive than a lot of the cr@p you can find nowadays and besides the fact that using fake stuff devalues the house, pulling out quality flooring just because you don't like a color doesn't help the environment either.

My floors aren’t matte. I opted for their satin finish so there is a sheen to it. They also have what they called their cashmere finish which is probably a true matte. I went back and forth because there ar3 maintenance pros and cons per their site but I decided on their satin finish and I’m pleased with it. As I originally wrote, I wasn’t looking for statement floors as I have enough statement designs in other elements that I chose.

However these aren’t super shiny the way my previous floors were. Those were site finished with what was probably the standard high gloss poly coat.

Think hard before you do matte. We have it now and it shows every drip and drop. i'd love to have my satin floors again.

cpartist, can you recommend a stain that has green in it?

sammieJ, oh really?? One of the guys we had quote us said the exact opposite of that, and said that's why he chose Duraseal Ultra Matte for his own home. Maybe it depends on the light in your home? We also chose cashmere/matte kitchen cabinets and the cabinet person said it helps hide fingerprints too. I have a good friend who refinished his floors matte which I fell in love with, my heart is set on matte lol

Zar's Spanish Oak has a greenish tint. It looks really ugly in the can, so I almost did not bother to even sample that shade but it looked good on the wood

Are you at all handy? If so, look into learning to install the hardwood yourself. It will save you big time. My DH and I have done two homes now and came in around $2.99/sq. Ft. That said, we were replacing carpet which is easier to remove yourself then tile. Just a thought.

Hi Bri, my husband is super handy but we run a family business, I have a 22 month old and am 28 weeks pregnant so undertaking a DIY for 1600 sq ft would be a little too much at this point. As of right now, I don't even have a livable house for when baby is due :P

We just had our 1937 nail-down red oak floors refinished with Bona (waterborne poly) matte using an amber tint. We also put red oak in our addition and had it finished as well. The old blends seamlessly with the new and the amber neutralized the pink. The floors look soft and fresh, and are a warm backdrop for our home. I’m very happy with the results, and I generally don’t care for red oak, so that’s saying something. I didn’t want “pink” floors. I think your oak can work.

cpartist, can you recommend a stain that has green in it?

I'm not familiar with stain colors. Hopefully someone else can help.

I just wanted to update everyone with our decision. We were being quoted anywhere from $12k-$16k to lay and feather in about 600 sq ft of 3 1/4 " red oak down and to refinish everything so it matched. We decided to rip it all out because it was never going to give us the look that we wanted. And to get a flooring look we love, including the extra demo, it's going to cost us just under $13k for 1530 sq ft. of engineered wood floors. I've attached a photo of a sample of our lower and pantry cabinet with the sample of our flooring choice. Our uppers and island will be white cabinets.

And just for fun, this is the view of our house currently from where the kitchen was. Next on the dockett is installing a few beams so we can officially take down down the walls!

@moylaure, what is the brand and shade of your floors? They're beautiful!

@MichellePat Thank you. I can't find the exact color anymore as they may have sold out of it. But it was by Mohawk. They're 7" engineered white oak boards. These are a couple photos of our finished reno.